Conditions Cattle Landing to Mink Island
 

Came up Saturday morning. As I feared, the warm weather, rain, and the town's over-active ice eater on the floating dock have combined to make access there impossible. Even far to the right where you could get on last season with a little bushwacking is now wet. Maybe the coming cold snap will lock that in better, but I'm not optimistic. Wish the town would make an effort to mitigate the problem there that started with the addition of the floating dock. Shorten the timers on the aquatherm, use a thermostat or try angling the ice eater to the left so that it's not circulating water into the cove area would really be appreciated and give us back a convenient access point (with parking lot).

If you go back up the the road from the parking area, just past the guardrails there is a solid entry point for foot travellers. Little wet just at the edge but one step out you're on solid ice. Measured 10" ice (7-8" black ice, the rest snow ice). That area gets iffy too when it warms up due to ice eaters on docks on either side. Right now, it's good though.

Unlike last year, you can pass through Cattle Landing (last year I had to duck behind Dolly Island to get around open water). This year we have solid ice through the middle (7 or 8 inches in the one hole I cut). Just be aware of the combined effects of some aquatherms on the mainland side and one at the boathouse on Dolly that combine to pinch the safe ice in the narrows of that area. The cold coming this week will help tighten that up further.

Consistent 10-11" of ice the rest of the way to Mink Island. Got a good 4 inches of fluffy snow on Sat PM to Sunday. Coming wind may well blow that all away.

Saw a very large coyote over by Camp Lawrence on Sunday far in the distance. Never got close enough for a good visual. Noticed it's tracks had circled one of my cusk lines earlier. On the hike out I could see that it had ranged all the way over to Mark Island. Lone animal it appeared.

Looking forward to the fishing derby!!

Thanks for posting the conditions.
were there any pressure ridges as you come out of Cattle?

The old dock had an aquatherm and there were never access issues, I wonder why the new one creates this problem?

Probably because the Meredith DPW wants to protect the two large fiberglass pylons located on the right side of the floating dock. The dock has three pylons total, two on the right , and one down at the outer dock end. In particular, to protect the one pylon that is closest to the shoreline with open water that extends to the shoreline area.

It certainly looks like the snowmobiles, atv's, and bob-housers can totally forget about using the Cattle Landing town dock area for getting out onto the ice via the little five foot wide entry opening thru the blue fence there that is next to the staircase........because there is a lot of open water along the shoreline there.

There were a couple of places where the ice had split with maybe a 3" gap that subsequently re-froze. Probably the areas that will get pushed as this cold snap expands the ice. Off Dolly there is a long line that runs out from the boathouse but it's more aquatherm related. Quite visible dip in the ice that was wet in spots too.

I think the issue with the aquatherm is that the old dock was on cribs. They put the aquatherm at the end of the dock, but I'll bet the flow dissipated when it hit the cribs. Now with a floating dock, there's nothing to slow down the flow and it hits the shore and curves around from there, causing a greater impact.

I sent a note to the Meredith Selectmen yesterday asking them to take a look at the situation and suggesting that if they relocated the aquatherm and aimed it out and to the left, the little cove on the right side would be protected from the ice eater action and would solve the problem. Will be interesting to see whether I get any response.

I noticed this from another thread, I wonder if this applies since it a public access point during the summer months.

270:33 Heating, Agitating or Other Devices in Public Waters, Safety Hazard. –No person shall put, place, operate
or cause to be put, placed or operated in the waters of this state any so-called heating, agitating or other device which
inhibits or prevents the natural freezing of water, or forming of ice, and impedes either the ingress or egress to or from ice
by means of any public access thereto. If the heating, agitating or other device is placed anywhere else, nearby signs shall
likewise be placed to warn of possible danger. Said signs shall read DANGER, THIN ICE and shall be of sufficient size
to be readable at a distance of not less than 150 feet, and shall be visible from all directions and shall be equipped with
reflectors and color-coded in a pattern unique for this purpose only. The department of safety is hereby authorized to
establish said unique design and coloring and any homemade copies shall follow this design and coloring. The provisions
of this section shall be enforced by any law enforcement agency under the direction of the department of safety pursuant
to RSA 106-A:14 and the department of fish and game pursuant to RSA 206:26.
Source. 1973, 321:1, eff. Nov. 1, 1973.

......snowmo flotation!
 

....for about twenty dollars the V.I.P. Car store in Laconia sells some pretty large inner tubes, about the size for a full-size, pickup truck; so's maybe it would be doable to tie them to the bottom and just float your snowmo, atv, or bobhouse across the little piece of open water down by the shoreline down below the eight foot high, grassy-snowy embankment down below the blue wood fence with the five foot wide entry spot down at the Cattle Landing-new Meredith town dock and dirt parking lot???

.....u-know....it is most likely that the cattle never had any big problem with this because cattle can probably swim!!!

....if there's some type of emergency situation down there, the payphone which had been there like forever and ever, was totally removed by Fairpoint about 18-months ago, so the payphone is gone.

Ice Eaters....
 

I saw that too. I suspect the town has the right to protect it's dock. I did get a response from a Meredith Selectman who promised to look into the situation. We'll see if anything comes of that. I'm hopeful that if the right people in town bring a little attention to this issue, a workable solution that both protects the dock and restores a safe access point will be found.

Yet another tremendous piece of advice. Yeah, just float your heavy items out on to the ice. :rolleye2: